SHOW NOTES

In this week’s episode I go behind the scenes of writing my first novel, Magic Souls. Not only did I have to learn how to write a novel, I had to learn how to write an interactive novel and format it! Easier said than done. 

TRANSCRIPT

You only write your first book once. And that first book is usually filled with your hopes and dreams. 

And in my case, I signed up for double the punishment. 

My first novel was an interactive novel I describe as a Choose Your Own Adventure for adults. So not only did I have to learn to write a novel, I had to learn to make it interactive and engaging. 

In this week’s episode, I’m going to talk about the process of creating my first book, Magic Souls. 

Hello, and welcome to episode 32. This week, I thought I’d take you behind the scenes of my first novel, the one that put me on the publishing map. 

The year was 2012, and I’d just gotten out of the hospital. I was listening to all the major podcasts learning how to self publish, but I had no idea what I wanted to write. 

Around that time, maybe a few months later, I found myself thinking about the old Choose Your Own Adventure books. They were fun to read and I wondered what had ever happened to them. 

I found one on Amazon and was surprised to see a Kindle version. 

I downloaded it, expecting to relive my childhood, but what I found was that the book hadn’t aged well. The reading experience hadn’t aged well either, and this kind of interactive book wasn’t easy to read on a Kindle. 

I searched to see if the interactive fiction genre had evolved. Aside from a few books that tried to update the genre to the modern era, most of them were in the same style—fun, second person POV with more of a gamebook approach. And there was a big movement for text-based games, but that wasn’t something I was interested in.  

I wanted to read a novel like the ones I was reading now as an adult, but interactive. I wanted a book with an adult character who had depth. I wanted a book that wasn’t in the second person. I wanted something with some storytelling behind it rather than just basic, endless choices. I wanted a story structure.  

Turns out, that didn’t exist. 

So I decided to create it. 

I discovered that writing an interactive novel wasn’t going to be easy. I hadn’t written a NOVEL before, so I had to learn how to do that. That in and of itself is enough to make some people quit. 

I had to go and punish myself further and make it interactive. But I didn’t know the first thing about ebook formatting. I barely knew what an ebook was. I had read plenty of them, but I didn’t know the first thing about how you’d go about creating one. 

Yet I had this vision of an incredibly interactive novel in my mind; one that built upon the traits that made Choose Your Own Adventures so popular, but evolved them. 

There were a lot of things I felt were holding this genre back. 

The second person POV was one. This is great narrative device if you want levity, but if you want to create a character that readers love and believe in, you can’t do that in the second person. 

So I decided before I even had an idea I was going to write in the first person. Huge deviation from the commonly accepted practices in this genre. 

I also decided that I didn’t like the loose structure. I wanted to create something that readers would recognize as a beginning, middle and end. The interactivity and story choices would affect the beginning, middle and end, but there would still be a character arc. So I deviated from the genre’s common practices again. 

Eventually, I came up with the idea of a moral/ethical story. What if someone had magical powers, and had to make decisions based on those powers? What if those magical powers were granted by a demon? What if the hero or heroine was being controlled by that demon and had to make decisions between worse and worst? What if she had no other choice but to be bad?

I settled on the title How to Be Bad, which later became Magic Souls. It ultimately was the story of Bebe McFerrin, a young attorney who is a pushover. She has no confidence and can’t stand up for herself. When a coworker steals her only chance for promotion, Bebe wishes that she could be stronger. 

Enter the demon Ladouche, who grants Bebe the ability to commit any crime without punishment. She can do anything she wants and he guarantees she will have immunity. 

So of course, Bebe falls for it and gets revenge against her coworker. When the consequences for her coworker turn out to be life-changing (in a bad way), Bebe regrets the deal and tries to shed her powers. But turns out she’s made a deal with a demon and she can’t break the contract. If she does, she’ll lose her own soul. 

Ladouche requires her to steal the souls of three innocent people as payment for his act of kindness. 

And this is where the story begins, with Bebe wrestling with her moral dilemma and coming to grips with her new powers.

The story is what I call an ethical train wreck on every page. Bebe has to lie, cheat, and steal her way into three innocent peoples’ hearts, and the decisions you make are really just a matter of how she does it. 

There are multiple endings, and the story takes interactivity to the next level. 

Instead of flipping pages, I designed the book for e-readers, phones, and tablets, so when you come to a decision, you simply tap on the decision you want.

Also, I built in mechanisms to stop you from getting lost, and it’s easy to go back to where you left off.

And finally, my crowning achievement for this book is that I put a game show in the book. An actual game show that YOU, the reader can participate in. I’m not kidding, and you have to see it to believe it. It’s a complicated game show with multiple rounds that you can win or lose. There are multiple contestants who all make different decisions based on your choices. Seriously, it’s a lot of fun. 

Anyway, this book was the result of learning the craft of writing a novel, twisting that and making it interactive, and some sophisticated book formatting. 

I like to joke that Magic Souls was an accelerated masterclass in how to write. I almost took on more than I could handle, but it was an amazing experience. When it was time to write my next novel, I was already writing and formatting at a level beyond most people’s second books, at least in the sense that I knew how to write a multi-arc story and execute on multiple plots at the same time. 

So that’s the story of my first novel. You can find it at www.michaellaronn.com/magicsouls.  

You can also read more about how I wrote my interactive elements in my book, Interactive Fiction. It’s my manifesto on what I believe the genre can achieve. 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“There are plenty of skills I've learned from playing video games. It's more interactive than watching TV, because there are problems to solve as you're using your brain.” Shaun White 

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SHOW NOTES

Writers write. Readers read. But as a professional writer, I’ve found it difficult to balance the two. In this week’s episode I talk about my struggle to find time to read.

TRANSCRIPT

Before I was a writer, I was a reader. A prolific reader. But when I started writing, reading became a struggle for me. In this week’s episode, I’m going to talk about that.

***

Hello, and welcome to episode 30. I wanted to talk this week about writing versus reading, because for me, it’s a constant struggle.

I was a prolific reader before I started writing professionally. I read at least 200 books or so a year.

In fact, I co-hosted a podcast where I talked about the books I was reading. It was called the To Be Read Podcast, and we did over 100 episodes talking about the books we loved. That show was cool because it forced me to keep reading so I could have something to talk about every week. I’ll drop a link to it in the show notes.

I was also active at my local library. Des Moines has a great library system, so I used it for inter library loans, and I used Overdrive to check out a lot of ebooks and audiobooks.

And of course, don’t get me started on Amazon. I bought books practically every week, so much that it was becoming a problem. Ask my wife.

Pretty much, if I wanted to find a book, I could find it. And I read a lot of books that were outside of the mainstream. That’s why I think I approach writing differently than others.

When I decided to become a professional writer, however, it became very difficult to balance writing with reading. After all, I still had a full-time job to worry about, and night classes, and a family to raise. And I found that I had to keep up with a lot of podcasts and blogs in order to be successful at writing. So naturally, reading fell by the wayside for me, which is something I hate and it dogs me literally every day.

I still read, but not at the level I used to. If I’m lucky, I read maybe 50 books a year, which is pitiful if you knew how much I used to read.

So, when I become more successful in my career, I’ve always said that I’ll use extra time to read and consume.

I write plenty of novels per year and writing quantity is not a problem for me.

If I can ever put myself in a position where I’m writing full time, I’ve always said that I’ll be a full-time reader and keep the amount of writing I do the same.

I’ve tried to cut down in my word counts and read more, but I always get anxious when I’m not writing. I’m always striving for personal bests, so to write less just makes me lose sleep.

I’ve also adopted audiobooks as my primary listening vehicle, listening when I’m in my car to and from work and doing chores. But that still doesn’t quite replace the time lost.

Writing vs reading is one of the biggest struggles I believe writers have to deal with, finding the time to read when writing is your primary job.

I know you can’t write if you don’t read, but if you don’t write, you don’t have a career. So it’s a difficult balance. At least for me.

But I’m committed to reading. It’s how I got my start.

Reading for me is like writing; it’s as sacred as prayer. It’s how I discover the inner workings of other people and learn my own inner workings.

But boy, it’s not easy to read when you are a writer. And definitely something I wish someone had told me when I started writing.

I suppose nothing in life is perfect. This kind of balance struggle is what keeps life interesting, you know? If it wasn’t a struggle between writing and reading, it would be something else. So I’ve just learned to live with the discomfort and I make sure that I do enjoy the little time I have to read.

Check out the To Be Read Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0PiSCERUfn2qXBQccvgvMg 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Joseph Addison

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SHOW NOTES

In this week’s episode I talk about why I stopped writing my latest series and why I have no problem failing in public.

TRANSCRIPT

Sometimes you’ve just got to call it quits on a novel.

I don’t normally believe in quitting, but in this week’s episode I’m going to talk about why I stopped writing my Sound Mage Sonata urban fantasy series, and how I failed miserably in public.

***

Hello, and welcome to episode 28.

I wanted to give you guys an update on my Sound Mage Sonata series.

If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you probably heard me talk about it a lot. Some of you wrote me and told me that you were interested in it.

And then I stopped talking about it.

Why?

I take pride in the fact that I don’t usually quit my novels. I write them from start to finish, even when things get rough.

I just prefer to finish what I start, and I’m always glad that I did when I look back on the project.

But this project proved too difficult for me to continue.

In episode 3, I talked about the research I was doing for the Sound Mage Sonata series. I talked about the research I’d done into Islam, Dubai, Middle Eastern customs and culture, and music.

At this point I had spent a fair number of hours on research and I had a lot to show for it.

I was about 10,000 words into the novel when I hit a roadblock. At first, I couldn’t figure out what it was.

So I did some more research, and I discovered a problem.

It would be a very bad idea to mix Muslims and magic together.

In Islam, Magic is something to be feared. It’s the mark of dishonesty. To even dabble with it invites danger into your life, and it is frowned upon. Now, not all Muslims feel this way, but I started researching magic use and Muslims and most sources I found agreed.

That was a problem because my main character was a Muslim and he used magic. I mean, you can’t have urban fantasy without magic.

So I had a problem.

***

I played around with the idea of inventing a religion instead—but that didn’t work because the setting was very clearly in a city inspired by Dubai. To set something in a Middle Eastern setting and use any other religion than Islam just didn’t feel right. It also didn’t help that the story featured jinn prominently.

I couldn’t put jinn in the story without the culture that they came from. While that works for Western mythology and creatures, it doesn’t really work for Middle Eastern folklore, at least not in a way that feels genuine.

I realized it would be exceedingly difficult to do this story without crossing some kind of line.

It’s important to me that my stories are inclusive and not misappropriation in any way, so I ultimately made the decision to quit writing the series until I could make it work. And in order to do that, I’d have to do a lot more research, something that would require travel and a lot of time I didn’t have.

So I stopped.

That was a career first for me, but it’s important to me that I write stories that respect my readers. The last thing I want to do is offend or insult someone who has spent their hard earned money on my work—at least not intentionally.

But I learned a lot of things about the Middle East that I can use for future novels, and I look forward to that day.

Until then, the Sound Mage Sonata series is going in my someday pile.

Sometimes failure happens. I definitely failed with this series.

I mean, I talked about it in public, put myself out there. Most people would wait until the book was done before talking about it.

I definitely failed in public in front of all of you guys, but it doesn’t bother me. I don’t really see it as a failure. In fact, the idea that I failed never even occurred to me until I was writing this episode. I learned a lot about a culture, wrote 10,000 words of a novel, and ultimately made a hard decision with my readers in mind. That’s a win in my mind, and practice for the next time something like this happens.

So at the end of the day, I’m going to keep on keeping on, and I’m going to write a new urban fantasy series that I know you guys will love.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill

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SHOW NOTES

Writer’s block affects every writer. In this episode, I talk about unique skill I’ve cultivated that has helped me turn moments of “writer’s block” into the best sources of my creativity.

TRANSCRIPT

Writer’s Block hits every writer. Some can deal with it in a matter of hours, some can overcome it in a matter of days, and others, unfortunately, never beat it.

I don’t personally believe in writer’s block, but there have been times when I’ve been stuck in my books.

This week, I’m going to talk about how I power through the hard times, and a unique skill I’ve cultivated that has helped me turn moments of “writer’s block” into the best sources of my creativity.

***

Hello, and welcome to episode 24.

For my behind the scenes episode this week, I wanted to spend some time talking about how I deal with writer’s block.

I mentioned that I don’t believe in Writer’s Block. I know that sounds a little smug, but here’s my problem with the word “writer’s block”—it’s really just an excuse most of the time.

It’s so easy to say, “I can’t write because I have writer’s block.” And then days and months pass and you have nothing to show for it.

Most authorities in writing treat writer’s block as a major struggle to be won. It’s this huge battle that writer’s face on a regular basis…

I just refuse to believe all of that.

I believe that we as writers have to do a better job of focusing on solutions, not excuses. And writer’s block to me seems like a really convenient excuse. Let me explain.

***

Now, I don’t mean to diminish the struggle that people feel when they’re stuck in their manuscript. All writers get stuck and that’s the truth. I’ve been stuck in my own books many times.

However, I think mindset is really important and goes a long way here.

Despite the fact that I’m stuck, I don’t call it writer’s block.

I’m going to get metaphysical for a minute, but stick with me.

I believe that your subconscious is the source of your creativity. It knows exactly what to write, how to write, and where. My subconscious—or muse—or creative voice as Dean Wesley Smith calls it—is my guiding light. It will help you over every obstacle if you just listen to it.

But most people can’t and won’t do that. Instead, they write from the logical part of their brains, which is actually not a very good idea because this part of the brain is also where the inner critic lives. The writer often undermines what the subconscious originally gives them, because he or she thinks that she ultimately knows better and knows what readers want.

When writers quit, it’s usually because of the inner critic giving up.

I personally believe that abolishing the inner critic is one of the most important things a writer must do to be creative.

When you do that, you’ll actually be able to LISTEN to your subconscious. And that’s how you remain creative.

And when you LISTEN to your subconscious, it will actually tell you what it needs.

It’s not stuck because of writer’s block. It’s stuck because it needs something. I view it as my job to give it what it needs.

***

Let me give you my best example of nurturing my creative voice.

In my novel, Android Deception, I got to a section halfway through the book and got stuck.

I fought against it for a long time, dragging myself to my computer and trying to bang out words, but it didn’t work.

Instead, I listened to myself and let myself drift.

My wife and I visited a local bakery that I had never been to before. That experience was exactly what I needed. It was amazing experience—creative decor, incredible ambience, and lots of interesting people.

While I was there, I remember asking myself, “How would I write this into a novel?”

And I connected it to my novel. When I got home, it turns out that scene gave me the inspiration I needed, and I wrote the bakery into the next chapter. That ended up being the most memorable chapter in the book.

So did I have writer’s block?

No.

I gave my subconscious what it needed, which was a new experience. I leaned into the fact that I didn’t know what to write next. In other words, I let myself drift. I let life happen around me and I was rewarded for it as a result.

I view writer’s block as productive discomfort. Instead of fearing it, I embrace it.

It’s like when your car skids out of control. The natural inclination is to swerve the opposite direction, but that makes it worse. The way to regain control is actually to lean into the direction your car is swerving.

For me, writing is no different.

Now, I’ll admit. Some people might hear this message and think, Cool, I can procrastinate when I get stuck!

I’m not saying that. Drifting and listening to your subconscious sometimes is a matter of having strong will and motivation to return to your manuscript. Otherwise, you’ll never finish.

I don’t let myself drift for very long. Just long enough to let life seep in to my novels. And if you live life to the fullest, keep your eyes open, and pay attention to your surroundings, it won’t take very long.

Anyway, I thought I’d share that secret with you, as it’s gotten me through a fair amount of pain points in my books. I talk more about this in my book, Be a Writing Machine, if you want to hear more about writing process.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” John Quincy Adams

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SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• My top 5 moments that shaped me as a writer (follow up to Episode 11, so if you missed it, check it out and come back here)

TRANSCRIPT

In this week’s episode I’ll be following up on the Top 10 Moments that Shaped Me as a Writer. I’ll be talking about my Top 5.

***

Hello, and welcome to episode 20 of the podcast! I’m twenty episodes in, and the podcast doesn’t feel new to me anymore. Thanks to everyone that has tuned in so far, and here’s to a bright future to the podcast!

In episode 11, I counted down the first half of the Top 10 Moments that Shaped Me as a Writer. If you haven’t heard that episode, you can find it at michaellaronn.com/episode11.

Anyway, the first round was finding my biological father, taking WMG Workshops with Dean Wesley Smith, reading the works of Swami Vivekananda and Ray Bradbury, and learning how to speak Spanish. Those experiences developed me as a writer in important ways, and if you read my work, their influence on me is obvious.

So let’s jump into my Top 5, shall we?

Top Moments in My Creative Life, #5-4

#5 is writing music. As you guys know, I started my creative career as a musician. I was writing songs in high school, and very active in band. I'd come home from school, do my homework, practice my saxophone, and then I'd write music.

I had a computer program that allowed me to capture my ideas and it would play them back for me. I would try to recreate my favorite songs in this app, and I started with TV themes. I collected TV Themes because they were so fun to play. Because smartphones didn’t exist, I carried around a CD of my favorite TV Themes.

Matlock. The Odd Couple. Knight Rider. Alf. I Love Lucy. Moonlighting. The Cosby Show. The Greatest American Hero. Great music.

Anyway, writing music was important in my development as a writer, and my love of TV Themes brings me to #4, which is my friendship with my friend, Will.

When I was collecting TV Themes and writing music, it turns out he was doing the exact same things as me—learning how to play music and write it. I don’t even remember how we met, but we were in marching band together and we ended up talking about TV Themes and I shared my CD with him.

Thirteen years later, we’re best friends. Music-wise and life-wise, we’re on the same wavelength.

I can remember hours and hours spent at both our houses, writing songs.

Now, I’m a creative, but he’s even more of a creative than me. I remember learning so much watching him play music, explore his guitar and piano as we figured out chord changes. He has an incredible eye and ear, and working with him taught me to sharpen my eyes and ears, too.

Will is musician these days so he stayed on the music route, but we’re still best friends all these years later.

Top Creative Moments in My Life, #3-2

#3 is The Creative Penn by Joanna Penn. I’ll talk more about the circumstances that led to me finding Joanna in my #1 item, but listening to Joanna’s podcast and reading her blogs inspired me to be an indie author. If I hadn’t done that, I would probably be still submitting my work to publishers waiting on them to accept me.

#2 is studying abroad. In college I had the opportunity to study abroad in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama.

I traveled with a student group for 3 weeks, and at the end of that, I broke off from them and stayed behind, traveling by myself to Nicaragua instead.

I have no idea why I decided to stay there on my own. Looking back on it, man was it ballsy.

But man did it teach me a lot about myself.

I was in a foreign country where I barely spoke the language, had no guide or help, and I had to learn how to live by myself in Managua, Nicaragua for two weeks.

I went to many interesting places, ate so much interesting food. But there’s one experience that I will never forget.

I had visited an ATM to get out some cash. I only had one bank card and it had all of my money on it.

I accidentally dropped my wallet while I was putting the cash in it. It took me a while to gather all my belongings.

When I looked up at the ATM, it beeped at me and told me that it had retained my card. I had to go into the bank to claim it.

In the United States that normally wouldn’t be a big deal.

But in a place like Nicaragua banks aren’t always safe. In fact, my host father recommended that I avoid them unless absolutely necessary. After all, guards with machine guns stood outside the front entrances.

I was terrified. I had no money, and no money in foreign country is nothing but trouble.

I could have gone into the bank and explained what happened.

Instead, I knew a place up the road whose clerk would let me use the phone to call my host parents. They would know what to do.

So I started up the road, traffic speeding by me as I’m freaking out.

I pulled out my wallet to get my host parents’ phone number, and what is in my wallet?

My bank card.

Seriously.

My bank card was in my wallet. The same one that the ATM ate.

I know what I saw. The ATM ate the card.

Yet here it was in my wallet.

That incident gave me a lot of faith, and it was definitely a higher power protecting me. I’ll never forget it.

And here we are at my #1 item.

#1 is a near-death experience. In 2012 after a nice dinner with my wife, I fell ill with what I thought was food poisoning. I ended up being in the hospital for a month.

That experience taught me a lot about life, and confirmed that I needed to stop wasting it.

When I got home from the hospital, I became a writer for real.

I talk more about this experience in my book, Be a Writing Machine, but this experience was integral to me becoming a writer, and it’s woven into the fabric of who I am. It’s why I always mention it on podcast interviews.

It was the #1 moment that shaped me as a writer.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” Carol Burnett

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

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SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• How I plan, record, and publish this podcast
• The equipment and software I use
• How podcasts helped me build my personal brand

TRANSCRIPT

In this week’s episode, I’m going to take you behind the scenes of The Writer’s Journey Podcast and talk about how I design, write, and record this show. Stay tuned.

***

Hello, and welcome to episode 16 of the podcast. I thought I’d take some time this week to talk about how I record this show.

Believe it or not, this podcast is a pretty minimal effort for me.

I only do podcasts if I can make them easy on myself. Otherwise, they can eat up a lot of your time with not much benefit in return.

So I’m going to walk through every step of how I do this show.

Designing Each Episode

I broke the show into weekly themes. This helped keep some variety while also giving listeners an idea of what to expect.

The first week of the month, I talk about the writing life.

The second week of the month, I read a page from my sketchbook.

The third week of the month, I go behind the scenes of something in my career.

The fourth week of the month, I give an update on my writing progress.

My ultimate goal is to be able to turn on my microphone and just talk.

Because I’m doing a solo podcast, I have to work a lot harder to keep your attention since I don’t have a co-host or a person to interview.

So to do this, I break each show into segments, and my secret is that I’m usually doing something to catch your ear every 60-90 seconds, which equates to about 150-200 words.

[INSERT SOMEONE SAYING “WHOA”]

See what I did there?

When I’m writing the scripts for each episode, I start thinking about what kind of sound effects and audio I want to use. I imagine every episode as a three-act play, with a beginning, middle, and end. If I need a sound effect, I grab a public domain sound from Freesound.org.

I also think in 150 word increments and evaluate where I can “break” the content up. That could be a sound effect, a joke, a turn of thought, music, whatever. I find that small cues at certain intervals keep you listening. It’s called a pattern interrupt, and something I learned to do quite effectively with video.

I break up the larger segments of the show with a transition sound, which you’ll hear…right now.

Writing the Scripts

Since I have a pretty good format established, the next step is to write the script.

I set a hard stop for myself at around 1,000 words, sometimes a little more. I find that this number translates nicely into about a 5-7 minute show.

It usually takes me about 20 minutes to write, edit, and proofread each script, which is a little over an hour for the month’s episodes.

I have fun when I’m writing these episodes, and it takes nothing for me to sit down and write 1,000 words about myself, my writing, or my thoughts on something. I don’t have to think twice about it.

And because I am a one-draft writer, I trust myself to come up with the best thought the first time, and I spend only a few minutes reviewing what I wrote.

Recording and Editing the Show

I wake up at 5:30 in the morning, take a shower, sit down in front of my Blue Yeti microphone, which is on my desk. I open Adobe Audition, the program I use to record and edit.

I hit the record button and I start talking.

If an episode is 5 minutes, it’ll take me 6-7 minutes to record because I’ll occasionally make a mistake.

I then edit the audio, cut out the mistakes, do a few engineering things to the audio to make voice sound louder and fuller.

For example, here’s a sample of how I sound before sound editing: [CLIP OF MICHAEL SPEAKING WITH BAD SOUND]

You can tell it’s pretty quiet and not quite so full.

And here’s what that same audio sounds like after editing. [CLIP OF MICHAEL SPEAKING WITH GOOD SOUND]

Once I’m done editing, I cut the audio into smaller chunks so I can share it on Anchor and share snippets of each show on social media.

Then, I upload the audio to Libsyn, my audio hosting company.

I also have a template blog post that I use for each episode. I copy and paste my script into WordPress and that’s all I need to do.

I use Canva to create a thumbnail image for my blog. I have a simple template for this, and I grab images from a royalty-free website to add some color to it.

I schedule the podcast and blog post to go out around midnight on Thursday.

I also have social media automated to share every time I release a new episode, so I don’t have to do anything with this.

And That’s a Wrap

That’s it. From a monthly perspective, I can design, write, record, and publish all of my podcast episodes in 2-3 hours.

Once I become more successful, I can scale this and outsource it to someone. When I do that, we’re talking around a 1 hour per month commitment for what I think is a pretty high value show.

All of that to bring good content you to fine folks.

If you’re interested in starting a podcast, you can check the show notes for links to all the equipment and programs I use.

If you have a message, then I recommend looking into podcasting. It’s a wonderful, cost-effective way to build an audience, just like I’m doing for this show.

My Podcasting Gear

Blue Yeti USB Microphone (Affiliate Link): https://amzn.to/2I7voeX

Adobe Creative Cloud (which contains Adobe Audition): https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud.html

FREE Alternative to Adobe (Audacity): https://www.audacityteam.org/

Free Sound Effects: https://www.freesound.org

Canva: http://www.canva.com 

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I like to pretend that my art has nothing to do with me.” – Roy Lichtenstein

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

 Let me know!

SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• Top 10 Moments that shaped me as a writer and made me who I am today.
• Some incredible books that transformed the way I think.

TRANSCRIPT

In this week’s episode, I’m rewinding through my life and counting down the top 10 most important moments that shaped me as a writer. I’m starting with the present and moving backward.

#10? The experience with my biological father. It confirmed why I’m a writer in the first place. Stay tuned to find out the rest.

Hello, and welcome to episode 11. This week, I thought I’d spend some time talking about critical events in my life that made me the artist I am today.

I already mentioned in the intro that #10 was the search for my biological father. I talked about that in episode 5 – Searching for My Biological Father, so if you haven’t heard that one, be sure to give it a listen.

#9: Taking Courses with Dean Wesley Smith

Moving on to #9, that would be taking courses with Dean Wesley Smith at WMG Publishing.

If you’ve never heard of Dean, he’s a USA Today bestselling author and the guy who wrote all the Star Trek books I read when I was growing up.

He’s a prolific writer and his courses are jam-packed with amazing advice that have taken my craft to the next level. Dean Wesley Smith's courses expanded my mind and helped me understand writing on a deeper level.

#8: Reading the Works of Swami Vivekananda

Moving on: #8 is reading the works of Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda was a Hindu monk who lived in the 1800s and early 1900s, and he was responsible for introducing the western world to Hindu spirituality and philosophy.

Sometime in 2011 I stumbled upon his complete works, and I was completely blown away at how he saw the world.

Some of the things he preaches are mantras that I live by daily. In fact, if you delved into the philosophical undercurrents of my stories, you would find that they center on many of Vivekananda’s key assumptions about spirituality.

I talk more about Swami Vivekananda in my book, Be a Writing Machine, so be sure to check out the book if you want to know more about how he developed me as a writer.

#7: Discovering Ray Bradbury

#7 is discovering the works of Ray Bradbury. I picked up Fahrenheit 451 in 2010 on a whim, and my life was never the same. The way Bradbury wrote, it was like music, like pure intoxication. I told myself if I could ever be half the writer he was, then I would be somebody.

Bradbury's prose was beautiful, so imaginative and evocative, while still having a fast-moving story. I strove to find that balance in my own work.

I was also blown away by Bradbury’s prolific nature—I too wanted to be an author with hundreds of works on the shelf.

Something about Bradbury’s personality just clicked with me—it told me it was okay to write a lot of stuff, and to write a lot of different stuff, too.

A great book that outlines many of Bradbury’s philosophies about the world is Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews. It’s essential reading for any Bradbury fan.

#6: Learning Spanish

Spanish, you ask?

Yes, I am bilingual.

I started speaking Spanish in the seventh grade. I wanted to take a shop class for my elective, but it was full, so my guidance counselor forced me to take Spanish, and I went into that classroom kicking and screaming. It ended up being one of the top ten moments of my life.

I majored in Spanish in college, and studied abroad to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama.

My first job out of college was as a bilingual claims adjuster for a Fortune 100 insurance company. I was way in over my head, but I took the leap of faith. I became fluent on the job, and there were many days where all I spoke was Spanish. I did this for nearly five years.

Honestly, my love of Spanish could be a podcast episode in and of itself.

Why did this impact me as a writer? Because I learned the nuances of another culture, and how easy it is for things to get lost in translation.

Writers are translators. We translate the language of the mind into something that readers can see, feel, and experience.

In order to keep people reading, we have to translate what’s in our head and hearts and color it so that it means something to the person on the other side of the page. Often, writers think they are doing that, but they are actually falling short.

Learning to speak Spanish on a practical level helped me see weaknesses in my storytelling in a different way. And it taught me how to shore up those weaknesses so that I could start speaking to people on their level.

That’s it for this week’s episode. In next month’s Behind the Scenes episode, I’ll go over the top 5 moments that shaped me as a writer. And these events are even more life-changing.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“This world is but a canvas to our imagination.”

Henry David Thoreau

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

 Let me know!

SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• Why the five senses are one of my secrets to effective writing that engages the hearts and minds of readers
• Examples from my work
• A new way to think about this using two unique analogies

TRANSCRIPT

The older I get, the more appreciation I have for the five senses.

There's something to love about paying attention to all of life's cues in a five dimensional way…

There’s this memory that I will never forget.

I was sitting in my great grandmother’s kitchen as a boy as she cooked lunch on a sunny afternoon.

I remember relishing the sweet smell of fresh corn bread when she pulled it out of the oven.

Collard greens simmering on the stove with a ham hock bobbing on the surface. The ceiling fan whirring wildly.

Judge Judy blaring on the TV. People screaming at each other.

Sugar exploding on my lips as I drink a cold can of grape soda. Beads of sweat on the shiny can like translucent pearls.

I crush the cold aluminum in my palms. Time for another one.

[END MEMORY]

Was that vivid? Did I take you there? Could you see, smell, and hear the memory? If so, keep listening to find out how I did it, because I'm going to talk about one of the key secrets in my writing craft.

***

Hello there, and welcome to episode 7. I want to talk today about a technique that I have been using in my writing for the last ten years that has made a big difference with readers.

It's the reason why in reviews, readers say that my work is imaginative, visual, and it's almost like they can “see” my story unfolding.

That technique is using the five senses in my work. When I say use, I mean repeatedly, and over and over again.

This is fairly common advice, but I wanted to talk today about how I apply it practically.

In order to use the five senses effectively in your work, you've got to do it in such a way that it doesn't impede the flow of your story and the readers don't notice you're doing it.

When I was writing poetry, one of the first things I learned to do was to use the five senses. Poetry forced me to economize, so I often got creative and used single words to describe something in two senses. Sometimes I made words and phrases up to achieve the image I was going for.

[CUE LOVE MUSIC]

May I say that you look razzledazzly today?

[NEEDLE SKIPS, ENDING SONG]

When I made the jump to short stories and novels, this was something I was already pretty good at so it made the transition smoother. I'm to the point now where I do this on autopilot. I don't even have to think about it. In fact, when I'm in public and called upon to speak, I often speak in stories, and I find myself using the five senses orally, too.

I took several courses with Dean Wesley Smith, a prolific author who I consider to be a virtual mentor, and he talks about how the five senses ground the reader in your story. It makes the story real for them because they can see it and feel it.

In the clip I opened the show with, I used all five sensory details to tell the story of sitting in my great grandmother’s kitchen. If I did my job right, it was engaging and kept you listening.

***

Here's how I've learned to take writing with the five senses to the next level.

I like to pair the senses with my content.

Example #1: in my Last Dragon Lord Series, my Main character is a dragon. A dragon is going to experience sensory details differently than a human, so when writing the book I focused on taste and smell more often, about 60-70% of the time whenever I needed a sensory detail. That made my hero’s observations more realistic, and readers called it out in the book reviews.

Example #2: When choosing imagery, I don't just pick the best thought to describe something; I use imagery that matches the emotion of the scene. In a poem, I once described tumbleweed rolling through a building. I used the line “rolls through the bowels of broken buildings.” I could have said “insides of broken buildings,” “rubble-crusted broken buildings,” or some sensory phrase. But with that poem, I was trying to describe a desolate, post-apocalyptic atmosphere. Bowels has a negative smell connotation and reminds one of ruin and decay, so that image made the most sense.

Example #3: I use sensory detail to help the reader see out of the character’s eyes. When the reader is along for the ride, they live alongside the character and they see what the character sees. They also cannot see what the character cannot see, which is sometimes helpful because you can hide certain things in plain sight that will be important later.

To illustrate this in real life, I can't tell you how many times I have an encounter with someone, and I recall it like it was yesterday…but my wife, who was right there with me, recalls it differently. She focuses on different details than me, picks up clues in people’s body behavior that I completely missed. But here's the thing: the clues were still there.

If there's anything I've learned, it's to imagine writing as painting.

Think about the last painting you saw. Artists have an uncanny way of focusing your eye. Certain elements of a painting have amazing detail: others have basic detail. The artist is attracting your attention to what he wants you to see.

When you're writing, you're drawing with mental paint. You want the reader to see what you want them to see; all else is noise. You can use sensory detail as a way to ground readers in the story, hold and direct their attention, and distract them from something that might be important later on.

Very powerful.

***

Quote of the week: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Eleanor Roosevelt

CREDITS

Intro/Outro Music: “Kick. Push” by Ryan Little.

Sound Effects/Miscellaneous Credits:

Cooking in the Kitchen by KenzieVaness: https://freesound.org/people/KenzieVaness/sounds/352050/

Opening a can of soda by michorvath: https://freesound.org/people/michorvath/sounds/386887/

Pop tab break by SunnySideSound: https://freesound.org/people/SunnySideSound/sounds/67806/

Ceiling fan by zmadyun: https://freesound.org/people/zmadyun/sounds/343793/

egg timer by xyzr_kx: https://freesound.org/people/xyzr_kx/sounds/14263/

Needle Skip ZE Sound Research Inc: https://freesound.org/people/ZeSoundResearchInc./sounds/117512/

Archetypal (Star-Crossed Lovers) by Drake Stafford: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Drake_Stafford/~/Archetypal_Star-Crossed_Lovers

Sound effects courtesy of Freesound.org.

SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• An update on my Sound Mage Sonata urban fantasy series and why it's the most different thing I've ever done
• Research I'm doing into the Middle East since my series will take place there

TRANSCRIPT

Did you know that the tallest skyscraper in the world is in Dubai?

Did you know that there’s a skyscraper hotel in Dubai that has a balcony with a swimming pool on every floor?

Did you know that in the Middle East, owls are considered symbols of destruction and ruin?

Oh, and camels. Yeah, camels. They’re awesome.

***

Hello Anchor Nation, and welcome to Chapter 3 of the podcast.

I teased in the first episode that the weeks where I talk about my behind the scenes process would be the most interesting weeks of the show. I hope this week lives up to that.

I’m in the middle of research for my newest series, The Sound Mage Sonata. It’s an urban fantasy with a male hero. I thought I would spend some time talking about what I’m researching.

My last venture into urban fantasy didn’t fare so well for me. My Magic Trackers series was the worst performing launch I’ve ever experienced in my career, actually. Some people might even wonder why I’m even writing urban fantasy if my first true venture into the genre was a flop.

Because I don’t give up, that’s why! And book sales don’t matter too much to me. As I've talked about before, I care more about a quality product and branding. I wanted to do something different with this new series that broke some new ground.

[CUE MUSIC]

An Urban Fantasy in the Middle East

My Sound Mage Sonata series is a different kind of story. Think standard #urbanfantasy meets the Arabian Nights and Prince of Persia. Instead of Chicago or London, this series will take place in a city inspired by Dubai. https://t.co/Uss26E4sLe #writing #booksaremagic pic.twitter.com/0pbp2MvR0g

— Michael La Ronn (@MichaelLaRonn) April 3, 2018

Instead of werewolves or vampires, there will be jinn and creatures inspired by Arabic folklore.

Instead of being a wizard or a hunter, the hero is a “sound mage”—one who creates magic through sound. It’s the most interesting and nuanced magic system I have created yet.

The hero is a prince who witnesses the death of his family by a murderous jinn who ascends to the throne and becomes a fearsome sultana. In a final act of love, his mother changes his appearance and casts the prince into the underbelly of the giant city—this time as a regular, powerless citizen. What happens next is complicated, and not what you expect…

This is not a story of revenge, but instead, redemption. And humility.

***

Whenever I’m researching for a new series, I gather as much as I can. I start a Pinterest board and collect images and art, so I explored a lot of Arabic art. See the show notes for a link to my Pinterest board.

Something really cool about Arabic art: Did you know that Arabic art focuses less on portraying people and more on portraying patterns and designs? You’ve probably seen the beautiful arabesques, those geometric designs that seem to repeat forever. The reason for this is because Muslims prefer to use art to show the indivisibility and infinite beauty and power of God.

I also delved into what life is like in Dubai. Since this story is an urban fantasy, it won’t be the tired, Arabian Nights cliche that seems to be really over-used.

Interesting Facts About the Middle East

I wanted this story to be Middle East meets West, where both cultures co-exist as their own kind of world.

That led me all kinds of fun rabbit holes, like the history of Dubai and Arabic customs, and even Arabian wildlife. I read an article titled “Birds of the Arabian Night” which was absolutely fascinating.

[CUE bird sound]

Did you know that falconry is a treasured sport in the United Arab Emirates? Seriously, it’s a big deal. Did you also know that camel racing is a big deal there, too? Some of the YouTube documentaries on it were amazing. Actually, I spent way too much time watching camel videos.

Another thing I’ve been researching is music. I write to music, so I like to develop a playlist I can listen to to help me get in the spirit of story. I was a musician prior to being an author, and I have some pretty eclectic music tastes, so Middle Eastern music was already something I was familiar with. But I spent a lot of time listening to Middle Eastern hip hop and a style of music called Trip, which is electronic music with Arabic instruments. Some of the samples are really fun and catchy. I also studied the storied history of Middle Eastern instruments. If you ever have some time, listen to oud music. It’s a middle eastern instrument similar to a lute, but it has a unique sound and when played, it’s like listening to a storyteller. In fact, my main character in the Sound Mage Sonata’s instrument of choice is an oud.

[Cue oud music clip]

Islam

I’ve also been reading the Quran, since no understanding of the Middle East is complete without understanding Islam.
I’ve read parts of the Quran in the past, but not as deeply as I have now. There are some pretty cool videos from progressive Muslims on interpretations of certain passages that made me think about God in a different way. I am grateful for those videos.

I know that Islam can get a bad rap in the media, and I don’t agree with everything it espouses, but reading some of the Quran has given me a new appreciation for the religion and its view of the world.

Essentially, what I want to accomplish with this series is to use Eastern philosophy as the basis for the undercurrents of the story. Nothing political or controversial, but instead a different of seeing the world. I can’t talk too much more about this without some major spoilers, but every series I write has a different worldview. The Sound Mage Sonata will be no different.

So far, I’ve been soaking up as much as I can about life in the Middle East, how people talk, Arabic words, the Qu’ran, nightlife, architecture, etc. You name it, I’ve been paying attention.

I’m taking a big gamble featuring my next urban fantasy series in a middle Eastern setting—it’s unusual and to my knowledge hasn’t been done quite like this. But if you know anything about me, I’m all about taking risks.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Benjamin Franklin 

What do you think of this week's episode? Sound off in the comments!